Elk in North Carolina, Sunflowers, Pumpkins and COLD Front

 

Blairsville, Ga  (high 86, low 62)

 

It’s been a particularly warm summer this year and the north Georgia mountains are no exception. At least it’s not as miserable and sticky as it is in Florida. 

It looks like a cold front is coming this week with lows predicted to be in the upper 40’s.  Burrr.   I’m not looking forward to that.  We don’t have a heat pump or dual pane windows on the Cameo like we do on the motorhome, so it will be harder to stay warm.    The highs are predicted to be low 70’s, so we will enjoy that.

We finally decided to take a couple trips and see some sights.  What started out as a trip to get a 48v bulb for the golf cart tail light, ended up with us up in Cherokee, North Carolina at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.   It’s one of the four visitor centers in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

We wanted to go see the herd of wild elk.  Yes, there are elk in this area but it wasn’t always so.

“ Elk once roamed the southern Appalachian mountains and elsewhere in the eastern United States. They were eliminated from the region by over-hunting and loss of habitat. The last elk in North Carolina was believed to have been killed in the late 1700s. In Tennessee, the last elk was killed in the mid-1800s. By 1900, the population of elk in North America dropped to the point that hunting groups and other conservation organizations became concerned the species was headed for extinction.

Reintroduction of elk into Great Smoky Mountains National Park began in 2001 when 25 elk were brought from the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area along the Tennessee-Kentucky border. In 2002, the park imported another 27 animals.”

We arrived there during the hot part of the day and not the best time to see them.  When we drove up, there was a ranger vehicle parked along side of the road, with warning signs so we thought for sure the herd was in the field.

 

We were disappointed to find nothing but a few wood chucks.

 

There is a trail and Mountain Farm Museum which winds around the field where the elk graze. 

 

 

 

 

The river winds alongside the village.

 

We took a walk in the shade along the river and came across a young bull elk on the other side of the river.

 

Apparently, he wanted to cross the river and come over to where we were standing.  We backed up to allow him to cross and soon we saw another young elk.

He wasn’t the most handsome fellow, was he?

 

I don’t know if he lost his antlers in a fight, or if he is starting to shed them.  They shed their antlers every winter, so maybe that was it.

 

 

I liked this next picture that the reflection on the water showed his face better than the actual photo of his face.

 

We stayed around awhile until it became apparent we were keeping them from going where they wanted to go.  We were a little hesitant to go back down the trail because we didn’t want them following behind us with those big pointy antlers.   They didn’t.

 

We never saw the main herd. The head guy in charge has a much larger rack and he seems to keep the other males away from his herd.  When we were there last year, we saw him chasing the young male back into the woods.  I’m assuming nothing has changed there.

We took a drive around the area looking for the big turkey.  Baxter loves turkey feathers and he is in need of a replacement.   Other feathers just don’t do the job like a big tail feather from a turkey. We found turkey, but no feathers. I think I’m going to have to go on Amazon in search of a turkey feather.   

 

 

Yesterday, we took a drive over to Dawsonville, GA for the opening of the sunflower fields and the Pumpkin patch.

 

First stop was Fausett Farms and Horse Trails.  They have 13+ acres of sunflowers planted and it’s a lovely way to spend an afternoon. We should have waited until later in the week when the cold front came because it was HOT there yesterday.

 

 

There were sunflowers everywhere.

 

Rows and rows of sunflowers.

 

 

 

For $5 a person you could take what turned out to be a very short mule train ride. I’m glad we passed on that since it didn’t take you anywhere you couldn’t easily have walked on your own.

 

 

 

Al was hiding in the sunflowers.

 

 

This sunflower field is near Amicalola Falls State Park, which is where the southern portion of the Appalachian Trail starts.  There are some lovely waterfalls there with some great hikes (one all the way to Maine) but it was too hot so we didn’t stop.

Instead, we went to Burts Pumpkin Farm.  It’s always kind of fun to see all the pumpkins and gourds.

 

 

 

 

There are some big pumpkins there.  I saw one with an $84 price tag.  

 

They have a gift shop and sell home made goodies, mostly of the pumpkin variety.  It sure smelled good walking around the grounds.

 

We love this area because everywhere we go anywhere, there is beautiful scenery.  The drive home was no exception. I rarely leave my camera at home.

 

 

We had a friend waiting for us when we got home. 

 

Sure wish I could find these kittens a home.

A Change in Plans, Led to a Wonderful Surprise

 

Blairsville, Ga (high 72, low 48) 

We decided to take a drive to check out the fall foliage and we heard the drive from Franklin to Cherokee, North Carolina was pretty nice.

We left Blairsville, going through Track Rock and Hayesville, NC and drove Hwy 64 towards Franklin, NC.  It was a beautiful drive.

The prettiest colors were before between Blairsville and Franklin, NC.  Once we got into the Great Smoky National Park, we saw less fall color.

It wasn’t at peak fall color, but it’s getting there.

 

 

 

It was a beautiful drive.

Hopefully we will be able to stay long enough to see the peak fall season.

It got a little cloudy at times, but we love the way the clouds look when they sit on the tops of the mountains.

 

The road between Franklin and Cherokee was not as colorful.

The Blue Ridge Parkway starts in Cherokee, NC and our plan was to drive it for a while to get a feel for the fall colors there.  We missed the visitor center and had to turn around because we needed a bathroom break.  The foliage wasn’t real pretty on the Blue Ridge just yet. We only got a few miles on the BRP, but it turned out to be a good thing.

We ended up at the Ocanaluftee Visitor Center which is one of the entrances to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park,  but not right on the BRP,  We  were sure glad we did.

 

We knew there were a herd of Elk somewhere in Cherokee, but we figured it would be somewhere off the beaten path and our plan was to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway and not look for elk.

As we walked up to the visitor center, we noticed these signs.

We asked one of the Rangers where we could see the elk herd and she said they can sometimes be seen in these fields right by the visitor center, which is just off highway 441.

There were no elk to be seen and we didn’t expect to see any there except during the normal feeding times in the early morning or  late afternoon. 

At the visitor center there is an old farmstead as well as some trails along the river. We took a walk over to the farmstead which is past the big field where the above sign is located.

The farmstead was pretty interesting, but this huge old tree, which I assumed was a chestnut tree, was probably the most spectacular thing there.

We thought the tree stump should have had some sort of marker at least because of the size of it, if nothing else.

It made me sad.

The kids were enjoying the river. I wasn’t sure they should have been playing there but the river was shallow and slow moving, so I guess they wouldn’t have drowned if they had fallen in.   I need to keep reminding myself, not my circus, not my monkeys.  :)

The views were pretty spectacular.

 

You could look into the buildings, but not enter.

I always notice in these old houses, how they only have useful and necessary items, unlike all the stuff we tend to accumulate nowadays.

  

 

The next picture was taken inside the meat house where they smoked and salted mostly pork.  I swear I smelled country ham when I looked inside.

As we walked down the trail, Al noticed something in the far edge of the field.  After zooming in with my camera, I could tell is was a female elk.

 

Also in the field were several woodchucks.

I took way too many pictures of them, but these are not something we see in Florida.

 

The ranger told us the bull elk sometimes led the heard over to a nearby school, so we drove over to what we initially thought was a school.

We saw no elk but there was a pretty good size flock of very large and healthy looking turkey.

Apparently, they get plenty to eat because they were all pretty large.

 

After searching unsuccessfully for elk, we decided to head home and turned back towards the visitor center. We saw a traffic jam along hwy 441 and assumed there must have been a wildlife spotting.

We were right.  That is the same field where we saw the single elk but this time the entire herd was grazing in the field.  

 

We parked,  walked as close as was allowed and zoomed the camera in and this is what we saw.

You can see how close they are to the road. I didn’t like that.

Elk roamed freely in this area 200 years ago, but were overhunted and none remained.

In 2001 they reintroduced another small herd to an area nearby and shortly afterwards this herd here in Cherokee.  According to the ranger, there are 32 elk in this herd.  We noticed quite a few juveniles, so I guess they are doing well.  They all appeared to be plenty fat and healthy looking.

This youngster still had his spots.  He spotted a wood chuck and walked over to check it out.  The wood chuck saw him coming and went into his hole.

It was kind of cute.

 

This guy looks pretty young.   Calving season is in May and June, so next year, we might need to visit earlier in the year.

 

The rangers were all around keeping people from getting too close to the herd.  They have been known to charge or stick their heads into open car windows.  They tell you if you have a dog with you while walking,and an elk approaches you to let go of the dog leash.  Yeah right!  I don’t know of too many people who would let their dogs loose.

 

Apparently there is one bull elk in charge.  There were some young males on the outskirts but the head guy kept running them back into the woods.  :)

It didn’t take long to spot the guy in charge.

 

 

Isn’t he spectacular?  I couldn’t stop taking pictures of him.

 

 

It turned out to be a spectacular day and we’re sure glad we went to the visitor center instead of a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway.   We went home via Hwy 74 and through the Nantahala Gorge.  It wasn’t as pretty of ride as Hwy 64 which is the way we came.

It rained all day Saturday, so we stayed home except for a short visit into town to see something I had wanted to see for many, many years. 

More on that later…….